A teaching of Jesus' during The Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus teaches that the only reason that a couple should get divorced is unfaithfulness.
Again, I have trouble accepting this blindly. It's common sense that people can make the wrong decision about a relationship, that even years into a marriage people change, or circumstances force people apart. I don't accept that all relationships are salvageable - however much I want the world to be perfect and happy.
My parent divorced when I was 8 years old. This destroyed the happy confident child that was me, but it changed my Mother from a nervous, scared, weak, submissive woman whom people said would be on welfare within a year. It changed her into a happy, confident, silly (in the best possible way), independent woman with her own house and good qualifications. I can't accept that my Mum is somehow doomed in God's eyes; I can't fathom someone thinking that my Mum will somehow be turned away from Heaven
It did make me promise myself that when or if I ever got married, there would be no divorce. So far so good. But I can tell you, it's a lot of hard work.
When Tammy Wynette (born Virginia Wynette Pugh in Mississippi in 1942 - died April 6, 1998) came out with this song in December of 1967, it meant quite a lot to a whole slew of white trash parents. It was written by Bobby Braddock and Curley Putman.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
Our little boy is four years old and quite a little man So we spell out the words we don't want him to understand Like T-O-Y or maybe S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E But the words we're hiding from him now Tear the heart right out of me.
Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today Me and little J-O-E will be goin' away I love you both and it will be pure H-E-double-L for me Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E.
(Second verse removed for © compliance.)
Divorce, the disruption, by the act of law, of the conjugal tie, made by a competent court on due cause shown. In the United States, jurisdiction in divorce cases is usually conferred on the law courts by the statutes in the different States, there being no ecclesiastical courts in the English sense of that term. The causes of divorce enumerated in these statutes are by no means uniform in relation to the various States; South Carolina allows no divorce under any circumstances, but in most of the States divorce may be granted on any of the following grounds: Adultery, conviction of felony, cruel and inhuman treatment, willful desertion for periods varying from one to three years, habitual drunkenness, impotency, or neglect to support the wife.
The want of harmony in the legislation of the different States on this subject has led to very great confusion and conflict in regard to the rights and liabilities growing out of divorce against non-residents of the State where granted, and some uniform system of laws on the subject is greatly needed. As the jurisdiction of Congress over the subject is very doubtful, uniformity can apparently be secured only by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, or by the concurrent action of the various State Legislatures.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.
Di*vorce" (?), n. [F. divorce, L. divortium, fr. divortere, divertere, to turn different ways, to separate. See Divert.]
1. Law (a)
A legal dissolution of the marriage contract by a court or other body having competent authority. This is properly a divorce, and called, technically, divorce a vinculo matrimonii.
The separation of a married woman from the bed and board of her husband -- divorce a mensa et toro (∨ thoro), "from bed board."
2.
The decree or writing by which marriage is dissolved.
3.
Separation; disunion of things closely united.
To make divorce of their incorporate league. Shak.
4.
That which separates.
Shak.
Bill of divorce. See under Bill.
© Webster 1913.
Di*vorce", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Divorced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Divorcing.] [Cf. F. divorcer. See Divorce, n.]
1.
To dissolve the marriage contract of, either wholly or partially; to separate by divorce.
To separate or disunite; to sunder.
It [a word] was divorced from its old sense. Earle.
To make away; to put away.
Nothing but death Shall e'er divorce my dignities. Shak.
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